2012-12-22
2012-12-30
x george h.w. bush
x the nation

STATION
CNNW 2
KGO (ABC) 1
MSNBCW 1
LANGUAGE

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saw yesterday senate majority leader harry reid basically accusing john boehner of running a deck tate toreship, that was his word in the house of representatives. reid piled on a little bit late yesterday afternoon and senate republican leader mitch mcconnell responded. take a listen. >> speaker boehner should call members of the house back to washington today. he shouldn't have let them two in fact. they're not here. they're not here. john boehner seeps to care more about keeping his speakership than about keeping the nation on firm financial footing. >> reporter: there have been all eyes on senator mitch mcconnell, the republican leader, the counterpart to harry reid because he has been pretty quiet early on in the negotiations. was defering speaker boehner to give the republican side. after hearing senator reid yesterday, senator mcconnell fired back. take a listen. >> we're coming up against a hard deadline here and i said, this is a conversation we should had months ago. and republicans aren't about to write a blank check for anything senate democrats put forward just because we

service for the late senator daniel inouye. harry reid is also at that event. will he talk to president obama? white house officials right not being fairly tight-lipped on that matter. not telling us if there are any meetings scheduled at this point in time. they, again, call this a working vacation and say that staffers are working on this behind the scenes. melissa? >> hang on just a second. let me bring in nbc news political editor diminico montenero. what do you think about the majority leader flying all the way to hawaii? >> i think they realized they have three options, small deal, a big deal or go over the cliff, and right now the most likely scenario is a small deal. something that puts us past the fiscal cliff but then brings the fiscal issues into the new year which has a lot of potholes for the president. has a lot of things to get done on his legislative agenda, so worried about how going over the cliff might impact the economy immediately. >> who is more likely to take the blame if we do go over this cliff? >> that's a lot of what we're seeing. that's why you see john boehn

and the agreement is going down. i mean, for example, senate majority leader harry reid is name calling and calling john boehner a dictator . this is what he had to say. >> the american people i don't think the house representative is operating without the house of representative. it is being operated with a dictatorship of the speaker not allowing the vast majority of the house and representatives to get what they want. >> that sounds ridiculous f. it was a dictatorship boehner would have gotten that vote and he couldn' get the vote. what we should do honestly guys, is swan dive ov the fiscal cliff. let president obama own the fiscal cliff. it should be called the obama cliff. >> julia: people know how much they would have to pay. folks on the man on the street interviews . people are looking at the numbers going what. >> kelly: in today's meeting should be a crucial meet the white house should have come with its plan and boehner should have come with a plan and senator reid should come with a plan but senator reid is name call speaker of the house john boehner giving retaliation of what is done .

. the president, vice president biden, senate majority leader harry reid and house minority leader nancy pelosi on the democratic side. house speaker john boehner, mitch mcconnell representing the republicans. brianna keilar live from washington. what do we expect to happen today? any new offers from the president or house speaker? >> we don't know. right now, all eyes on the senate to see what senate majority leader harry reid can cobble together to get some republican support. technically, it's still possible to come to an agreement. that said, politically is a different story, and the prospects for coming to a deal are starting to dim. right now, we're hearing a whole lot of the blame game. a lot of public posturing from both sides as they prepare for the possibility of going over the cliff. let's listen to harry reid. >> we are here in washington working while members of the house of representatives are out watching movies and watching their kids play soccer and basketball and doing all kinds of things. they should be here. >> now, the speaker of the house, john boehner, sort of retorting t

negotiations, whether the president, senator reid or others in about a month, around thanksgiving. with the democrats not reaching out to senator mcconnell for a month, doesn't seem like they have been pushing very hard for a deal, gregg. gregg: has the bickering between reid and boehner sort of poisoned the negotiations past the point that, you know, maybe this meeting will help at all? >> reporter: it may have because it's really, we've seen tensions escalate ever since before christmas when john boehner was not able to get a deal through the house where he has a very strong republican majority. he had a rebellion amongst some of his fellow conservatives. that is what held it up. senator harry reid as you say was very rough going directly after boehner yesterday. take a listen. >> the american people i don't think understand the house of representatives is operating without the house of representatives. it's being operated with a dictatorship of the speaker, not allowing the vast majority of the house of representatives to get what they want. >> reporter: the word dictatorship n

from its christmas vacation to work on a deal today. sources tell us majority leader harry reid will be pushing a scaled back version of the fiscal cliff package that president obama laid out last week. it moved the tax hike needle to $400,000 per household. no word yet on when the house might come back with time ticking away. democrats are hoping that a scaled back plan could get through the house, senate and white house before that big ball drops on 2013. that would be sometime on december 30th or even on new years eve. we want to bring in jonathan allen. he's a senior national correspondent for politico. the top headline on politico is fiscal cliff deal increasingly unlikely. i think a lot of people are feeling that pessimism right now. what are you hearing? >> well, i think what you've got here, alena, is a nash equilibrium to borrow from economic theory and game theory. each of the players believe they are pursuing their optimal strategies given the strategies of the other players and there's no reason to change it. i think as observers of this, the american public, you can

out of town until sunday, senate majority leader harry reid admitted a deal seems unlikely. >> i have to be very honest, mr. president, i don't know time wise how it can happen now. >> reporter: in a scathing attack, reid called house speaker john boehner a dictator, and blamed him for letting members stay home with no deal in sight. >> we are here in washington, working. while the members of the house of representatives are out watching movies and watching their kids play soccer and basketball. john boehner seems to care more about keeping his speakership. than about keeping the nation on firm financial footing. >> reporter: the republican leader responded saying it's democrats who failed to lead. >> make no mistake, the only reason the democrats have been trying to deflect attention onto me and my colleagues over the past few weeks, is that they don't have a plan of their own. >> reporter: president obama returned to washington for a last-minute push before leaving vacation in hawaii, he had separate phone conversations with congressional leaders. but it's not clear the talks helped

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